Journal

Autograph times and Entertainment Weekly -- but which week?

I just recieved in the mail the latest copy of EW. I was dismayed by the lack of quotes from you in the blurb, but at the same time delighted with the beautiful picture they printed. The mask of the Dark Queen was undeniably a beautiful work of art. Who designed the costumes for the MirrorMask? He/she is wonderfully talented.

Before I forget, I'm also attending Saturday of the Comic-Con. Are you doing any signings that day? If you are, let me know!

Your journal is so helpful and intriguing. Thank you for spending the time to work on it!

Elise, California

I think Entertainment Weekly did fairly well, considering they only had 100 words to explain what the film was, what the image was, and run half-a-quote (and mention this website).

Dave McKean designed the costumes (when he e-mailed me a picture of the Dark Queen's costume, complete with huge beetle-mandibles on one shoulder, I assumed that the whole costume would be computer generated). Robert Lever was the costume desgner and maker whose job it was to take Dave's sketches and ideas, and turn them, with the aid of a sewing machine, fabric, glue and polystyrene (in the case of the beetle parts) into things people could wear.

Signings are:

Thursday: At the DC Booth 3:30-4:30pm

Friday: CBLDF signing from 2:30-3:30 pm with Frank Miller, in the Autograph Area

Saturday: 2:00-3:00pm, Autograph Area (this is the one they've left off the Con website, either in order to keep the lines down, or just because they have hundreds of people signing and human error is going to happen).

Sunday: with Dave McKean, 3-4pm just as everyone's packing up to go home.

This should be a short question, hopefully, depending on how much I ramble from this point on.

I was wondering what the generally accepted word lengths are for different classifications of stories. Like what is a shortstory, novella, novel etc... Anyway, I know I've read it in your journal before, but I have no idea when.

If you answer this, thanks. and if not, thanks for all the great stuff you've written (or varying lengths and classifications).

If you any of you think you've read something on the journal, please, first of all, click on the search function, and go and look for it. I don't normally repeat things, figuring that people can go and look them up. (I clicked on the search function, typed "novella" and the second entry it offered was http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal_archives/2003_02_01_archive.asp#90321442, which should be just what you're looking for...)

And I know that Googling the site still doesn't always turn things up that it should, particularly where the archives are concerned, but give it a try first...

I've come to the conclusion that I must be doing something dreadfully wrong.

After going to 3 different places trying to find the new Entertainment Weekly, I finally found myself a copy of the July 11th issue. I looked carefully through the issue 3 times and, very upsettingly, found no images or writing about Mirror Mask anywhere.

Bewildered and confused, I came home and decided I might as well try the EntertainmentWeekly.com website and would more than likely find the info I need there. Alas, after a thorough search of their site, I found nothing on Mirror Mask. I even looked for info about you in general and the last update they have involving Neil Gaiman is their review of 'American Gods'.

In a final, futile attempt I searched google.com for "mirror mask" and "entertainment weekly". This promptly returned two websites to me. The first was your online journal on neilgaiman.com. The second was your journal on livejournal.com.

I've said it once, and I'll say it again: I've come to the conclusion that I must be doing something dreadfully wrong.

Yours truly with a side of coleslaw,
Joe

Ah, the July 11th issue -- with July 11th on the cover -- cleverly is the one that goes off sale on July 11th, or it would if people remembered to pull these things. The process of trying to work out what the current issue of Entertainment Weekly is has been known to drive people to madness, particularly when you can buy three different issues of EW in three different newsstands in Minneapolis Saint Paul airport.

Anyway, you've made the same mistake that was made in my house. The copy of EW you actually want is the one with the MirrorMask "First Look" in it, which is a full-page image somewhere around page 60. At a guess it'll have a July 18th cover date on it, and officially it went on sale on Friday (the 11th).

Neil, or, er. . . Mr. Gaiman,

I was looking into the artists on Endless Nights out of curiosity, and I was wildly impressed by Barron Storey. Googled him, and found his books are out of print and a bit expensive for a college student like myself. So the question:

Is there any talk of reprinting his Marat/Sade Journal, or any of his works, because of the attention Endless Nights is attracting? Or, if this isn't a question you would have the answer to, who would I ask? This book seems like Dave McKean's short films-- something that everyone should have a copy of, and yet no one can easily acquire.

Many thanks: for stories that seem infinite and a journal that feels like afternoon tea. And hopefully for an answer to my question.

Alex groff.

I'd be thrilled if that happened -- I love my copy of the Marat/Sade journal. Let's wait until Endless Nights comes out, and people have seen -- and been blown away by -- what Barron does, and see if there are any wise or adventurous publishers out there.